436 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



they [the tallies] should be declared permanent, and from 1444 he levied 

 them as such, i.e. uninterruptedly and without previous vote. . . . 

 The permanence of the tailles was extended to the provinces annexed 

 to the crown, but these preserved the right of voting them by their pro 

 vincial estates. ... In the hands of Charles VII., and Louis XI., 

 the royal impost tended to be freed from all control. . . . Its amount 

 increased more and more.&quot; 



&quot;Whence, as related by Dareste, it resulted that &quot; when the 

 tailles and aides . . . had been made permanent, the 

 convocation of the States -general ceased to be necessary. 

 They were little more than show assemblies.&quot; But in our 

 own case, during the century succeeding the final establish 

 ment of Parliament, frequent struggles necessitated by royal 

 evasions, trickeries, and falsehoods, brought increasing power 

 to withhold supplies until petitions had been attended to. 



Admitting that this issue was furthered by the conflicts of 

 political factions, which diminished the coercive power of the 

 king, the truth to be emphasized is that the increase of a free 

 industrial population was its fundamental cause. The calling 

 together knights of the shire, representing the class of small 

 landowners, which preceded on several occasions the calling 

 together deputies from towns, implied the growing im 

 portance of this class as one from which money was to be 

 raised ; and when deputies from towns were summoned to the 

 Parliament of 1295, the form of summons shows that the 

 motive was to get pecuniary aid from portions of the popula 

 tion which had become relatively considerable and rich. 

 Already the king had on more than one occasion sent special 

 agents to shires and boroughs to raise subsidies from them 

 for his wars. Already he had assembled provincial councils 

 formed of representatives from cities, boroughs, and market- 

 towns, that he might ask them for votes of money. And 

 when the great Parliament was called together, the reason set 

 forth in the writs was that wars with Wales, Scotland, and 

 France, were endangering the realm : the implication being 

 that the necessity for obtaining supplies led to this recogni 

 tion of the towns as well as the counties. 



